I am going to put a big sign around my neck that says, "No, we have not moved into our new house yet!"
Especially now. Scott just told me he thinks he should add three feet to the dining area by putting in a bay window. It could take two months for the window to get here, as it would have to be ordered.
What did I think, he wondered. Wanna do that?

~ Auntie Rose painted the cabinet boxes ~

As much as I don't want to wait at least two more months to get into that house, what the hell. At the rate things are going it could well be that long anyway. A couple more months, a couple thousand more dollars, and the next 20 years not wishing we had done it and regretting we hadn't.
You go, boy.

We are off to Regina today for a medical appointment and will look at flooring and try to see my friend Ms Bell.
Emil and Everett arrived home on Saturday.
It rained in the early morning, and my friends, life is good. You should see my flowers. Perdy.

xo(etcetera)

While waiting for my van window to be replaced one morning last week, I met Scott for breakfast and afterward we took a drive to a siding job he's working on. As we left we met Benny, who's been helping, and the two of them had a confab about their plans for the day.

I noticed this tiny birdhouse on a post nearby. It is only about six inches high, maybe eight.

Didn't see any birds in residence.

On Sunday I waited in the truck, facing south, while Scott went into a building on Main Street. There was lots of activity on the road through town, including this couple out for a promenade.

The gal in the wheelchair is Emil's supervisor at work. She and her husband are both clients of Mallard Industries; he, because as a young man he was in a farming accident that changed his life. They are both employed full-time and they've managed to set up housekeeping in their own home rather than in a group dwelling.

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Reta left today for Saskatoon, caught a ride with my niece's beau. Why do I want to nickname him "Fuzzy" ... somebody ssssssstop me....

This old gal hopped up into the van this morning as I was leaving for GGFarm to deadhead my flowers, weed out the wild portulaca and generally admire what is becoming a garden in full bloom. I am a slightly jumpy sort as it is; any unexpected movement or sound startles me. With Casper nearby, I'll get some notice if a cougar or anything else is around, so I can relax. (And I did; it's one reason I like a dog with me.)

She was with me the other night when I went walking and spied two little dogs approaching. They were timid and I called them to me, but Casper's hair stood straight up and she went into her "Don't Even Think About It" mode, which is formidable; those dogs weren't getting anywhere close to me. Once I told her to let them be, she settled down, but she still "made sure."

The two friendly little dogs followed me half a mile, and then half a mile back and the rest of the way home. They were gone by morning but we stopped at our new neighbours' on the way home from an emergency "parts" run (Brokedown Machinery, the Saskatchewan film would be called) to see if they were missing a pair of dogs. The neighbours weren't home, but the dogs were.

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Ann, re your comment: you've got that right about being lucky things didn't turn out differently. Don't I know it.

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~ the girlygirls wait impatiently on the step, woo hoo, we're going for a walk, hurry up ~

The morning glory in bloom took me by surprise when I came around the corner one morning. I have planted sweetpeas and poppies in with it so there will be a pretty wall of scent and colour ... someday.

We have not kept up with our garden weeds very well so I commissioned Kurt to come and help. He put in four hours and there is still a long way to go.

Last night Scott came home from work so sore he actually called ahead to ask me to run a bath that would be ready for him. When I went back to Golden Grain Farm to pull more weeds, he asked me to check the electric fencer and make sure the cows, calves and bull were not in the neighbours' pea crop again. This way he wouldn't have to go himself, as the chickens went to the Hutterite colony to meet their destinies on Wednesday morning. No more birds to feed and water twice a day.

To see the cattle, I had to look out behind the barn just as the sun was going down.

Back here at home, tonight, I am glad to get indoors. It's not cooled off yet, and after a couple hours bending and kneeling in the garden, it feels great to lie on the loveseat and gaze into a peaceful clean kitchen.

This wildflower grows in the ditch and its leaves can be made into a tea.

~ Everett and Emil ~

Shame on me, I forgot to send out a notify yesterday. Good thing I don't charge for them, or there'd be trouble. Eh?

Joan twisted the boys' arms while they were visiting her in Kelowna, and got her camera out.

Wham!
A stone hit the driver's window as Reta and I met a semi on the grid road going home.
It crumpled (the glass, that is) into a thousand pieces and fell out as I braked, pulled over and stopped.

Scott and I went for a walk around 8 o'clock last night. He is impressed with this tall crop of rye and asked me to take a picture to show Lasse, his cousin in Sweden. Here you go, L.

Ivan, Scott's dad, saw an animal run from the stone pile where remains from the slaughter of two cows had been dumped. It did not look like a coyote, he said; he thinks it was a cat. A big cat.

Pat, Scott's mom, thought she heard an unusual growl north of the yard a few nights ago. Maybe the cougars we saw in the spring have not left the area after all.

I have been cautioned once more not to go walking without the dogs. Not that I can often get away without the two of them jumping and prancing happily alongside till we get out of the yard, whence the young one bolts ahead, running back to touch her nose to my hand every once in a while, and the old one trots at my side, panting all the way.

***

On Friday I took my first tour with the palliative care team, which I have volunteered for. Wadena Hospital is a small one so there are not a lot of people in the palliative care ward at any given time, and after we looked in there we visited patients in the rest of the hospital and then went on to the attached nursing home to say hellos there. I enjoyed seeing people I know and meeting new ones (if seniors aren't the loveliest people there are, I'm a monkey's uncle), but shed a few tears when I got home, remembering the family members at the bedside of their dying mother/grandmother. It brought back strong emotions.

I went out in pouring rain this morning to drive over to Golden Grain Farm and deliver a message. These five big pelicans were in the water at the ravine. They've been in a body of water nearby lately, but not this close to the yard. I was thrilled, or maybe a better word to describe the feeling that went through me like lightning would be "grateful" to live where I do.

Aunt Reta has commandeered the loveseat in my office. She was going to go back to Margo yesterday or today but I hope to keep her a little longer, maybe till Saturday if I'm lucky.